


Rollercoaster

by thunderlilly



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 07:03:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16827583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderlilly/pseuds/thunderlilly
Summary: Rhodey takes Carol with him and Tony on a trip to an adventure park.Tony is angsty, Bucky isn't nearly as smooth as he would like to think and they even get a pretty picture to take home afterwards.





	Rollercoaster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CutePlantMom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CutePlantMom/gifts).



Tony loved Rhodey, wholly and unconditionally. There had never been a doubt about that in his mind since the earliest days of their friendship. Rhodey was Tony’s oldest friend - his best friend - and Tony wanted his friends to be happy, he wanted Rhodey to be happy (and God knew that if anyone deserved to be happy it was Rhodey, if only for all the times he’d put with Tony).

So it wasn’t as if Tony begrudged his best buddy - his brother, his _platypus -_ of pairing up with Carol on the rollercoaster. No, because Tony wanted him to be happy and if Carol - if riding with Carol - made him happy then he should absolutely pair up with Carol, no questions asked.

Even if that meant leaving Tony to ride by himself. Next to a stranger. Without his honeybear by his side togrip his hand too tight. (And it was okay, really, Tony had always known that Rhodey would leave him for someone better, sooner or later, was surprised that it had even taken that long, to be honest).

He rubbed his hand self-consciously before subtly glancing at the woman next to him. In her heels, she towered over him by almost two inches and her long, _long_ nails made loud tapping noises on the screen of her phone. Tony swallowed and looked down at his own hand, at the scars that littered his fingers and his own bitten down nails, imagining them gripping the woman’s hand and her claws digging into them. He shuddered. So that was no holding hands for him.

The line moved and Tony followed, all the while glaring balefully at the sign that said SINGLES WILL BE PAIRED in bold white letters. _Fuck you_ he thought and said, “What happened to the good old single rides?”

The woman next to him looked up from her phone and gave him a dark look, letting her eyes wander from his ripped jeans to his ratty, oil stained old T-Shirt and curled her upper lip at him.

“Yeah,” she drawled, conveying all the aversion Tony had been too polite to show, before turning back to her phone. _Fuck you, too,_ Tony thought, and said, “Yeah.”

He moved a bit further up to Rhodey and Carol before him, so that he could touch their backs if he stretched his hand out just a bit, but they were too deep into their conversation to notice him, and Tony kept his hands closely at his sides.

“Yeah,” he said again and his breath came out in a shudder. He was cold again. The rollercoaster sped by above them, the people in it screaming wildly and suddenly Tony remembered why hehad hated riding the rollercoaster as a child.

The coasters slowed and finally came to a stop at the front. People streamed out and the line started to move up again. Tony clamped his hands under his armpits and kept his gaze decidedly far away from the loop and the drop and followed. His eyes tracked distractedly over the wagons of the coaster, then up to the line of people streaming into them, his brain doing the maths without him even consciously thinking about it. He stopped, suddenly, and counted the wagons again. Then he counted the number people again. Then he said, “Fuck.” And hugged himself tighter.

Rhode and Carol turned around with twin expressions of worry on their faces.

“We can wait one out,” Rhodey said, and Tony would almost have nodded, but then he saw the slight dismay flash over Carol’s face, and then, almost too fast to see, pity. And that just wouldn’t do, Tony thought. This was Rhodey’s date with Carol, this was Rhodey-and-Carol time, not Tony-and-Rhodey time (and Tony didn’t think about this day having, in fact, originally been planned as a Tony-and-Rhodey day, because they saw each other way too few and Rhodey was always so busy with the Air Force and now he apparently needed someone else with him to be able to deal with Tony).

_Fuck it,_ he thought, and said, “Nah, you two just go ahead. I’ll just take the next one.” And he would almost have been proud of the way his voice didn’t shake, except Rhodey had known him for far too long and didn’t buy his act for a second.

“You sure?” He asked and watched Tony quizzically. “It wouldn’t be much of a hassle if we just took the next one. I know how much you hate riding the rollercoaster without someone holding your hand.” He grinned and yeah, that stung.

Tony put on his best showman smile and let his arms hang lose by his sides. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said. “Besides, I’m a big boy now, honey bear, so even if that was true - and thats a big if here - I can deal. You two just enjoy your date.”

Rhodey frowned and his eyes turned sharp, but before he could say anything someone in the line behind them yelled, “Would you please just get into the fucking wagon? Or just get out of the freaking queue, if you’re too chicken!” Rhodey’s mouth snapped shut with an audible click and he stared icily at the man. Behind him Carol shifted uneasily.

“Go, Rhodey,” Tony said, and even to his own ears it sounded way too final to match the occasion. Rhodey watched him for a second longer and out of the corner of his eyes, Tony could see one of the park workers move towards them. “Go, or you’ll miss your ride,” he nodded towards Carol, and gave him a little push.

With a long suffering sigh Rhodey finally turned around and held out his arms to Carol. “Shall we go, then?” He asked, and for a second Carol met Tony’s eyes. Now there was definitely pity in them. _Fuck you,_ he thought again, but then immediately pushed the thought away. Carol was good. She was good and kind and Rhodey loved her. She just didn’t understand that she was taking the most important person in Tony’s life for herself. Though, from the way her expression had softened, she probably had a pretty good idea.

So Tony took some more shuddering breaths and watched his best friend go. _It feels a bit like being dumped,_ he thought and he had to snort at that, because while they did love each other (or at least, Tony knew for certain that _he_ loved _Rhodey_ ), it had never been like that between them, even if Tony had wished more than once that he could love Rhodey romantically.

The coaster moved and Tony kept his gaze on his best friend and his best friend’s girlfriend as they slowly ascended, forced a smile for Rhodey and waved back at him. When they suddenly dropped, though, with loud joyful screams he had to suppress a flinch and quickly averted his eyes. He stuffed his shaking hands back under his armpits shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

Next to him, the annoying tapping noise stopped and he could feel the woman stare at him unabashedly.

“What,” he said, and then grimaced. _Jeez,_ he thought, _I’m a dick, what else is new._

The woman’s face contorted in disgust and Tony could feel his anger rising. “You know,” she said and let her eyes pointedly wander over his shaggy appearance again, “I would let him go, if I were you. He’s way out of your league.” This time Tony did’t try to hide his anger.

“Good thing I wasn’t asking for your opinion then,” he sneered and turned back to watch as the coaster entered the loop at breakneck speed. The woman snorted.

“As long as you don’t try to hold my hand.”

“Don’t worry, lady, wasn’t planning on it.” He continued to watch the coaster speed along the tracks and the laughing people inside it that were quite obviously way more suicidal than Tony could ever be, no matter what Rhodey said.

From the corner of his eyes he could still see the park worker walking towards them intently and lowered his eyes to his shoes. _Okay,_ he thought, _seems like you won’t have to ride that thing anyway, after that scene you just made._ Then he frowned. _And why the fuck am I talking to myself in second person?_

A slight cough next to him interrupted his thoughts and Tony could feel the woman next to him perk up in obvious interest. He thought _and fuck you, too, good Sir,_ before he raised his head to look at him. And for the few seconds his higher thought process took a break, his lizard brain thought, _no, I take it back, fuck_ ** _me_** _._

But God, the guy was gorgeous.

Steel grey eyes, long brown hair - that he’d pulled up into a ridiculously attractive man bun - and a stubbled jawline that Tony could probably cut his fingers on. His wide, _wide_ shoulders were clothed in a deep red henley shirt, the bright yellow jacket that marked him as staff - which looked absolutely ridiculous on any other employee Tony had seen so far - made his angles only look sharper. With his black leather boots he was also almost a whole head taller than Tony. He looked sharp and professional and altogether nothing like Tony. He also wore a quite impressive frown as his eyes trailed over Tony just like the woman’s had done just moments before.

Gorgeous Guy cleared his throat again and moved another step closer then opened his mouth as if to talk, before hesitating. Tony swallowed and imagined what he would say. _Excuse me, ma’m, is this gentleman bothering you? Would you rather ride with me?_ Tony grimaced again and looked down at the ground self-consciously again. _As if this day could get any worse._

_“_ Excuse me,” said Gorgeous Guy. _Figures._ “Would you mind riding with me, instead?” _Called it,_ thought Tony. Then there was an undefinable gurgling sound from next to him and a weirdly indignant sounding “What?!” And tony frowned. _Geez, what standards does this woman have if not even he matches up to her expectations?_

There was a short pause in which no one said anything, then Tony felt a little tug on his sleeve. Gorgeous Guy was still standing right next to him and stared at him with a glare that was so intense that Tony had to suppress a shudder. He did, however, shift uncomfortably and then looked back to the woman for a second who looked just as spooked as he did.

_I was wrong, with this murder stare, it’s no wonder she doesn’t want to ride with him._ He looked back at Scary Gorgeous Guy and raised his chin defiantly. “Well, I’m not gonna move, pal, I was here first so suck it up.” The guy blinked and then pulled his eyebrows down further together, making him appear even scarier than before. Still, Tony soldiered on, perhaps Rhodey did have a point with that self-preservation thing. “Besides, if she doesn’t want to ride with you on that stupid rollercoaster then you should really just accept it and move on. Or, you know, just get in line like every other person.”

For a second there was only baffled silence and Tony could swear that the whole queue of people had stopped talking to stare at them interestedly. _So this is how I die,_ he thought, watching Scary Gorgeous Guy watch him back, but still refused to look anywhere else.

Then, to everybody’s surprise, Scary Gorgeous Guy started laughing roaringly. And suddenly, he wasn’t scary at all anymore. Tony could barely contain his anger at him.

“Hey,” he snapped, and Stupid Macho Guy stopped laughing to look at him with now glittering eyes. “I mean it. You want a ride, you have to get in line. What kinda asshole tries to intimidate a woman into letting you go sooner, huh? Don’t think I won’t call security on you, just ‘cause you happen to work here. Or forget that, imma just beat your ass myself, I bet those muscles are just for show anyway, so you might as well get lost right away, you stupid, hipstery, tasteless wet napkin!”

To Tony’s disdain,Stupid Macho Guy just started laughing again, this time even louder. Just as Tony pulled his shoulders up even higher to try and make himself appear more intimidating, the woman next to him clicked her tongue and hissed at him, “What the hell? What kind of absolute idiot are you?”

Indignantly Tony whirled around to stare at her in utter disbelief before responding, “Excuse you? I was just trying to help you there’s no need to be so mean about it!”

The woman sneered right back at him. “First of all, if I felt pressured about this guy, I would be able to handle his ass by myself, I’m actually a big girl myself, you know?” Tony winced at that, remembering all the discussions he’d had with Pepper already about his meddling habits. But before he could even open his mouth to apologize to her she’d already went on, “And secondly, if it had actually been me he’d been asking out, I certainly wouldn’t have been stupid enough to say no to him.”

Tony raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, you’re right, I should have let you handle yourself. I’m s-“, he stopped and stared at her, while his brain desperately tried to process the second point she’d made. “Wait,” he said. “What?” She rolled her eyes at him - which, rude - and only pointeddecisively at Confusing Gorgeous Guy over his shoulder, before she took step back and went back to her phone.

“Wait,” Tony said, this time more desperately. Then he turned back to Confusing Gorgeous Guy who was still standing at his right shoulder and said, “What.”

With glinting eyes the other man leant down towards him and grinned at him in a way that made him look distinctly like a predator.

“Would you maybe,” he started in a very slow and deliberate way and just like that, Tony bristled again. “Like to ride with me instead?” They stared at each other silently - Tony incredibly confused and the guy incredibly smug - before he added, “I couldn’t help but overhear that you’d feel more comfortable, if you could hold someone’s hand, and since my ma taught me to always try ’n be helpful, I thought, hey, why not help that cute guy over there out?”

Tony blushed.

“What,”he repeated.

“So imagine my surprise,” Mad Gorgeous Guy continued, “When I swing my ass over to help and that cute guy who looks like he’s about to faint doesn’t even acknowledge me with one look.” And with that he gave Tony a pout that looked so ridiculously out of place on his face that Tony couldn’t contain the upward twitch of his lips. Then he frowned on.

“I wouldn’t have fainted,” he said then and crossed his arms over his chest. “And I’ll let you know that I’m very much able to ride a stupid rollercoaster all by myself. And besides,” he added, “how was I supposed to know that you were talking to me?”

Mad Gorgeous Guy grinned at him sunnily. “By looking at me, doll. And besides,” he imitated Tony’s former words in a higher voice, “How was I supposed to know you take offensive that easily?”

Tony felt his blush deepen even further, but before he could swear at the guy, he added, “I’m Bucky, by the way.” And he held out his hand. “Wanna be ridemates?” He asked with another cheeky smile.

Somewhat dumbstruck, Tony gripped his hand to shake it. Then he blurted, “Oh my God, they were ridemates!”

From behind him he could hear a mortified “Oh my God, why are you like this!” Echoing his exact thoughts back at him, while he and Bucky proceeded to stare at each other in a quite horrified manner, still holding each other’s hands. Then Bucky, to Tony’s absolute humiliation, began to laugh roaringly again.

“Well,” he said, still grinning madly down at Tony, “’m afraid that I now have to insist ya ride with me, doll.”

In that moment, the rollercoaster came to a stop in front of them and Tony’s eyes drifted over tothe exiting mass of people where Rhodey was helping a laughing Carol out of the wagon without a backwards glance.

The barriers before them lifted, signaling them to get into their seats and Tony gripped Bucky’s hand tighter and tugged him forward.

“Come on, then,” he huffed then squawked indignantly when Bucky took hold of his waist and lifted him straight into the wagon before swinging himself over the rail himself, settling next to Tony.

“Do that again and I’ll push you out of the coaster during the ride.”

Bucky looked at him surprisedly and, Tony noted with no little amount of smugness, a little worried, his smile diminishing visibly, then he nodded.

“Sorry,” he said, “Guess I got swept away.”

And God, how he managed to actually look like a kicked puppy Tony would probably never know, but he resolutely refused to feel guilty about having caused it. He cleared his throat quietly, then held out his hand towards Bucky with his palms upwards and shrugged.

“Well don’t let it happen again, I don’t like people touching me out of nowhere.”

With a smaller smile, Bucky took his hand in his own. “Gotcha, doll.”

The rollercoaster started moving up the slope slowly and Tony could feel himself tense, gripping Bucky’s hand tighter.

“Hey,” Bucky said and Tony turned his head slightly in his direction to indicate that he was listening without having to divert his eyes from the top of the rails.

“Yeah?” They were now a fourth of the way there.

“You know we’re probably not gonna die, right?”

Wordlessly Tony pinched Bucky in the back of his hand as hard as he could and reveled in the unmanly squeak that earned him. They were halfway to the top.

“I mean,” Bucky continued, “I’m one of the maintenance workers. I would know.” He gave Tony’s hand a squeeze and just now did he realize that Bucky’s hand was shaking, too. _Three fourths of the way._

“Really?” Tony asked. “You don’t seem very sure of that.”

Bucky grinned somewhat self-deprecatingly. “Well to be honest I only look over the coasters, and that’s only when they are on groundlevel. Tasha and Clint are kinda the only ones suicidal enough to look over the tracks.” Under his breath he mumbled, “Somehow this didn’t look so high from the ground.”

At this, Tony couldn’t suppress a tiny, breathless laugh. They were at the top now.

“Don’t they always?”

Snorting, Bucky opened his mouth to snark back, but whatever his answer would have been got lost in a piercing scream when the ground suddenly dropped from beneath them.

Tony didn’t let go of Bucky’s hand for the whole ride.

After leaving the rollercoaster on shaking legs, they found themselves by the exit where they were greeted by a grinning Rhodey.

“So,” he drawled and waggled his brows at Tony. “How was your ride?”

“Oh, haha.” Tony snarked back barely managing to keep his voice even.“Very funny. See if I’m ever gonna visit an adventure park with you ever again.” Next to him he could feel Bucky wobble on his feet and he gave his hand another reassuring squeeze.

Rhodey gave their hands a pointed stare but, thankfully, didn’t say anything about it - and thank God for that, because Tony really didn’t think his pride could’ve survived that, after the girly screams he was very sure he’d let out during the ride. Then, though, Rhodey’s grin got alarminglywider and he turned towards Bucky, holding out a square piece of paper.

To his horror Tony realized that this was most likely their rollercoaster photo. But before he could snatch it out of Rhodey’s hand, Bucky had already taken it.

“Son of a bitch,” Tony muttered under his breath, then leaned into Bucky’s side to look at the photo, himself.

Sure enough, it was their photo, what he hadn’t been prepared for, however, was that this was way, way, worse than anything he could ever have imagined.

Windswept hair, tightly clasped hands and twin expressions of absolute, unadulterated of terror stared unseeingly into the middle distance. They looked, by all accounts and purposes, like a pair of twelve year old girls that had just woken up to find their eyebrows gone.

After a few seconds of staring wordlessly at the picture, Bucky pocketed it and lifted his eyes back to Rhodey with a grin of his own.

“Thanks,” he said before finally letting go of Tony’s hand.

“No problem, man,” Rhodey replied with a shrug. “Now, if you don’t mind, Carol already joined the next queue and I promised her that we wouldn’t let her wait too long. If you want to tag along -?” He sent Bucky a pointed stare and held out his hand.

With a light start Bucky took it and cleared his throat nervously.

“Bucky.” He said. Rhodey snorted.

“Right, then. If you want to tag along, Bucky?”

“You don’t have to, obviously,” Tony intercepted hastily, sending his best friend a sideways glare. “I mean, I know you don’t really like heights and all, and we’re gonna be standing in that queue for ages anyway, so you’ll probably be bored out of your mind at some point and -“

“And what Tony is trying to say is that it is your choice, of course,” Rhodey interrupted smoothly, ignoring Tony’s death glare. “But he would love you coming along.”

Before Tony could get a word in edgeways, Bucky chuckled lowly and nodded his head.

“I would love to come,” he said. _But,_ Tony thought. “But,”Bucky continued. _I really actually wouldn’t._ “I‘ll have to sign out first. My shift just ended, but I still have ta tell my boss ‘m off. Shouldn’t take more’n a few minutes, though. I could meet you at the queue? Y’meant the water slide one, yeah?”

_What,_ Tony thought.

“Yeah,” Rhodey said.

“What,” Tony said.

Both, Bucky and Rhodey grinned at him fondly, then Bucky turned to go.

“So I’ll meet ya there then, doll,” he threw over his shoulder with a wink before disappearing in the crowd.

“What,” Tony repeated, for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

Rhodey clapped his shoulder companionably and said, “Well look at you go, T-Bones, you dog, I knew you had it in you.”

“Ow,” Tony grunted and hit back. Hard.

Laughing loudly Rhodey slung his arm around Tony’s shoulders and began steering him towards the next horrorcoaster, then he turned serious.

“You know that we would’ve waited that ride out for you, don’t you?” He asked quietly. “And you know that I didn’t take Carol with me because I wanted to spend less time with you.”

And damn Rhodey for speaking out loud what Tony fought to keep inside on a daily basis. He opened his mouth to reply with snarky remark, but one look at Rhodey’s face told Tony that that wouldn’t be a good idea. So instead, he swallowed, then nodded slowly.

Rhodey’s arm tightened around his shoulders, squashing him even tighter into his side, then he continued.

“I just wanted you to meet her, you know? Because she’s great, Tony, she’s one of the best people I’ve ever met and most of the time I can’t even believe that she really chose me and it just leaves me speechless, every time.” He stopped walking and turned to stand in front of Tony, gripping his shoulders with both hands, searching his face intently.

“I wanted to have both my favorite people together, you see,” he went on, softly. “Because, no matter how much I like her, it just doesn’t feel right without my best friend’s blessing.”

Then he abruptly pulled Tony into a tight hug and buried his face in Tony’s neck in a shocking display of vulnerability.

“You’re my brother, Tones. You know that I love you, right? No matter what happens.” He asked, and nope, those definitely weren’t tears in Tony’s eyes. And no, his voice definitely did not sound wet when he answered, “‘F course I know that, platypus.”

They stood like that for a few more seconds, patting each others backs awkwardly, before Rhodey slapped him on his back one more time and took a step back.

“Well,” he said, and if his voice sounded a bit shaky, too, Tony wouldn’t be the one to point that out. “I guess it’s alright then.” And with that they started moving back towards the queue.

“So, tell me about Becky,” Rhodey said after a few short moments and Tony groaned.

“You do realize that I don’t actually know anything about him right?” He responded. “I’ve literally just met him and most of our conversation was comprised of miscommunications and screams of terror. I didn’t exactly have the time to get to know him better.”

Rhodey laughed again, louder this time and bumped his shoulder into Tony’s lightly.

“Then I suppose, you have a lot of time for that now, since I took the liberty to write your number on the back of that _charming_ photo of yours.” He said with a grin.

Tony spluttered. “You did _what_?!”

“I couldn’t help myself,”Rhodey sing-songed back at him. “You looked just too cute, holding his hand so tightly and all. And he even thanked me for it, all polite and shit.”

Cackling, he danced away from the hit Tony sent towards his arm and then broke out into a run, all the while laughing like a maniac.

“Tony and Becky,” he bawled, Tony hot on his heels.

“Sitting in a tree,”

In the queue of people they could see Carol grinning and waving in their direction.

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

With an outraged cry Tony jumped onto Rhodey’s back who crumpled to the ground at Carol’s feet with an embarrassing squeal.

Sitting victoriously on his best friend’s shoulders, Tony could see Bucky’s tall, broad shouldered form in the distance and waved enthusiastically, before letting himself be helped to his feet by Carol, holding her hand perhaps a few seconds longer than necessary. She gave him an easy smile and, for the first time, he smiled back just as easily.

_Well,_ Tony thought, _looks like it’s time for some Rhodey-Tony-and-Carol-time._

When he finally reached them, Bucky gave the indignantly sputtering Rhodey only a cursory glance, before his gaze settled back on Tony, grey eyes glinting enticingly in the sun.

_With perhaps,_ he corrected himself, _some Rhodey-Tony-Carol-and-Bucky-time coming. That actually sounds like pretty good times._


End file.
